CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

I created a couple of covers in November 2013:

You can find the links to each of the preceding episodes of the Babes in London adventure sequence HERE . To play or run this game you will need the following: PLAYERS: Fireborn Player's Handbook ; GAME MASTERS: Fireborn Gamemaster's Handbook ; This is a piece of fan fiction. It is NOT endorsed or acknowledged by Fantasy Flight Game s; it is IN NO WAY official; it DOES NOT indicate any form of relationship between myself and Fantasy Flight Games; and I DO NOT CLAIM any of the setting specific material or setting specific concepts as my own. Warning: Due to a lack of playtesters, this section has yet to be tested. GMs may need to adjust opponents to suit the level of your PCs. PLAYERS SHOULD NOT READ BEYOND THIS POINT                 Scene 3: Follow-Up (Gehenna) About an hour after your call, the limo arrives. It takes you, in dark-windowed silence to a quiet street where a roll-up gara...

Here are the books I was able to read in November 2013:

So, this little guy nearly bought it when I caught it eating the still-forming buds on my Robyn grevillea, but then I thought I might like to see which particular butterfly was responsible, so I took some pictures and decided to keep an eye on it, so I knew when it pupated. The first shot - caterpillar happily nibbling on flower buds:  Yup - definitely nibbling: And here's another view. Note the little yellow lumps near its back end. Same day, but it was one of those cloudy days with variegated light. And it kept nibbling for quite some time: Stretching out to get the more tasty tidbits, and using its hind feet to keep a firm grip on the branch. Eventually it looped back on itself... ...and headed into denser foliage. It didn't always move in a straight line... How come caterpillars have more feet than butterflies? Eventually, it got into some much thicker growth (well, for a young grevillea, anyway), meaning it was somewhat prot...

With the demise of Google Reader, you should also remember that some of these blogs I go out and look for, although, this month, the majority come from my facebook wall or direct-feed subscriptions. I haven't had time to do my usual research run-around. Writers. http://www.buzzfeed.com/kayepublicity/weird-things-that-authors-do-fkhg Story Fuel http://gawker.com/elderly-man-survives-being-thrown-off-a-cliff-by-the-be-1456710164 http://dlferguson-bloodandink.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/my-favorite-new-pulp-heroes.html?showComment=1383431664543#c2907063951201950925 http://www.popsci.com.au/technology/world-s-first-solar-footpath-installed-at-george-washington-university http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2486251/1bn-haul-art-Picasso-Renoir-Matisse-squalid-Munich-flat.html Writing http://writeyourassoff.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/another-reason-why-authors-should-use.htmlhttp://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/11/14/an-email-about-writing-and-my-response/ http://www.vira...

So far this week I've managed to: Release one fantasy short story: Upload a science fiction novella, in both large- and normal-print versions, to the print-on-demand platform CreateSpace - which means it will be available from Amazon later this week, and other outlets in the near future Rejig the Simpson Anthologies page so it's more up-to-date and has the most recent, complete offerings on top. This is more than I've managed in a while, so I'm pretty pleased with progress so far.

Death Comes in Bone has just been released to Amazon, Smashwords , OmniLit , Kobo and Drivethrufiction. Of these, Smashwords and OmniLit are now live; the others will follow over the next few days.

Better this week. Slowly recovering from the flu, slowly organising time so I can get the writing I need to get done, done. Still working my way through a beta read, but I was told it was less urgent, so I’ve slowed. I only skipped one class this week, due to not feeling well. And, as you can see, I’ve started working my way through the outstanding tiers. I probably won’t be where I hoped to be at the end of the year, but I’ll come close. I’m still on track for writing, publishing or revising 1,000,000 words this year, and most of my earlier work is out. Next year, I expect my tempo to slow as I wrap my head around producing more completely new, written-from-scratch projects. Two of those are currently under way and on track, and there are more in the pipeline, but who knows what the new year will bring. Hey, right now, I don’t even know what the day job will bring—but, if I knew it all, life would be pretty boring, right? Right? For those of you who write, I hope this is helpful—and,...